Statement by Counselor Ren Yisheng of the Chinese Mission at the Second Part of the Resumed Sixty-Fifth Session of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly under Item 143 (Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Financing of UN Peacekeeping Operations) on Cross-cutting Issues

2011/05/03

Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese delegation wishes to pay tribute to all UN peacekeepers, especially those who have lost their lives. We thank you and the Bureau for your efforts in guiding the work of the Fifth Committee. We would also like to welcome the appointment of Ms. Sharon van Buerle as Secretary of the Committee and wish her every success.

The Chinese delegation wishes to thank Ms. Susana Malcorra, Under-Secretary-General of the DFS, Ms. Carman Lapointe, Under-Secretary-General of the OIOS, Mr. Jun Yamazaki the Controller, Ms. Ruth de Miranda, representative of the Office of Human Resources Management and Mr. Collen Kelapile, Chairman of the ACABQ for their respective presentations of the relevant reports. While associating itself with the statement made by Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, my delegation would like to make the following additional comments and proposals.

First, work on the basis of actual capacity and stabilize the growth of UN peacekeeping expenses.

The UN peacekeeping operations play an important role in maintaining world peace and stabilizing regional situations. The continuous expansion of the scale of UN peacekeeping and the surge of peacekeeping expenses in recent years have created certain burdens for the Member States and brought about many challenges to the administrative and budgetary management of the PKOs. We have noticed that having reached the highest level of deployment in history, UN peacekeeping is currently at a stage of consolidation. The peacekeeping budget for the year 2011/2012 will go down to $7.6 billion from $7.8 billion of the previous year. We hope that in carrying out peacekeeping operations, the international community will continue to work on the basis of its actual capacity so as to achieve a stabilization of the growth of peacekeeping expenses.

Secondly, engage in rigorous management in an effort to improve the overall budgetary implementation rate.

According to the report of the Secretary-General, the unencumbered balance for the period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 was $400 million and the overall budgetary implementation rate for the year 2009/2010 was 94.9%, almost 3% lower compared with 97.2% of the previous year. We understand that because of the unique nature of peacekeeping operations, there are problems such as delayed recruitment and deployment of personnel and relatively high actual vacancy rate, and as a result it is hard to implement the budget 100%. We have also noticed that the withdrawal or downsize of certain PKOs had led to the rise of unencumbered balance. However, it is our view that the budgetary surplus as high as 5.1% demonstrates that the problem of over-budgeting still exists. We hope that in formulating peacekeeping budgets, the Secretariat will work on the basis of facts, formulate budgets that are as close to the actual needs as possible, and submit timely revised budgets as remedy.

Thirdly, strengthen coordination to address cross-cutting issues.

The Chinese delegation notes with concern that the Board of Auditors, the ACABQ and the OIOS have pointed to deficiencies and problems in air operation, land transportation, fuel and ration management, ICT, and the management of expendable and non-expendable property. We support the recommendations for improvement put forward by the oversight bodies. We hope that the Secretariat will take effective measures to implement accountability, tighten internal control, reinforce financial management, ensure the effective use of peacekeeping resources and avoid waste, deception, fraud and abuse. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen human resources management, lower vacancy rate and step up various trainings for peacekeepers to improve their capacity and quality.

We have taken note of the activities carried out and progress achieved so far in the implementation of the Global Field Support Strategy, especially the four pillars, as contained in the report of the Secretary-General. We hope that the implementation of the Strategy will be conducive to the strengthening of budgetary discipline, the adoption of standardized model of financing, and the strengthened operational integration and accountability. We look forward to learning from the next annual report about the impact of the Strategy, including information on expenses, achievements and baseline.

Mr. Chairman,

The UN peacekeeping operations need stable financial support. The Chinese government has always supported UN peacekeeping operations and has made active contribution in both political and financial aspects. We are willing to continue to actively cooperate with other Member States and the Secretariat in our common effort for the effective administrative and budgetary management of UN peacekeeping operations.